Oppenheimer’s grandson points out one ‘inaccurate’ scene in the Christopher Nolan movie: ‘I would have removed it’

Mentioning that the part he liked the least was the poison apple reference, which was a problem in American Prometheus, Charles told TIME that he would have definitely removed that portion from the movie. “But I can’t imagine myself giving advice about movie stuff to Nolan. He’s an expert, he’s the artist, and he’s a genius in this area.”

“Even the authors of American Prometheus say that they don’t really know if it happened. There’s no record of him trying to kill somebody. There’s not a single enemy or friend of Robert Oppenheimer who heard that during his life and considered it to be true,” Charles mentioned.

“American Prometheus got it from some references talking about a spring break trip. Even the reporters noted that they didn’t know what he was talking about. Unfortunately, American Prometheus summarises that as Robert Oppenheimer tried to kill his teacher,” he stated.

Pointing out that even in the movie, it’s treated vaguely, Charles said: “You don’t really know what’s going on unless you know this incredibly deep backstory. So it honestly didn’t bother me. It bothers me that it was in the biography with that emphasis, not a disclaimer of, this is an unsubstantiated rumour that we want to put in our book to make it interesting.

Charles, however, mentioned that he liked some of the dramatisation. “I thought Einstein’s conversation with Oppenheimer at the end was really effective even though it wasn’t historical.”

“But one amusing family story is that, if I invited myself to the set, they would entertain me coming, which I did twice. And so one time I visited the set in New Mexico. I saw them film and, in that particular scene, Cillian Murphy walks into a room and part of his line was calling someone an ‘a**hole’. And when I went back to Santa Fe and told my dad, he was horrified. He said, ‘Robert Oppenheimer never swore. He was such a formal person. He would never, ever do that.’ And I was like, ‘Well, it’s a dramatisation’,” he recalled.

“There is a chance that if we had been consultants, we could have added some details and depth. But there’s such a complete record. It was enough for Nolan to tell the story he intended to,” Charles added.

Mentioning that he grew up having a very open dialogue about his grandfather’s work with his father, Charles stated that the conversations, however, happened with a very big dividing line. “Within the family, we absolutely talked about it as much as possible. With anyone outside of the family, my father doesn’t discuss anything [about him] if he can avoid it.”

Heaping praise on Christopher Nolan, Charles said: “I saw him work on the set with an amazing intensity when I visited once or twice, and we had a great conversation. During the movie, I found myself accepting and liking it. I thought it told a compelling story and I could just take it as art that was really engaging. I was really happy to have that reaction. I didn’t expect it.”

“As a dramatised representation of the history, it was really largely accurate. There are parts that I disagree with, but not really because of Nolan,” he added.